The invention relates to magazines for elongated cylindrical or similar objects, and more particularly to improvements in magazines for rolls of the type used in calenders, especially supercalenders.
It is already known to provide two upright frame members in a magazine for several calender rolls with vertically spaced-apart supports for the end portions of calender rolls. Each support on one of the frame members is disposed at the level of a support on the other frame member. When the magazine is occupied, the axes of stored calender rolls are located in a common plane. Magazines of such character are often employed for temporary storage of so-called elastic rolls which are used in supercalenders and have elastically deformable outer layers. Elastic rolls cooperate with hard rolls to define nips for running webs of paper or other material which requires treatment in a supercalender. The magazine can be used for temporary storage of fresh elastic rolls which are to replace damaged elastic rolls or for temporary storage of damped elastic rolls immediately following their removal from a supercalender. The means for transferring rolls to and from the magazine includes a crane with two cables for each end portion of a roll. The cables of each pair carry a sleeve which must be slipped onto the end portion of the roll prior to transfer of the roll from the supercalender into the magazine, from the magazine into the supercalender or from the magazine to a destination other than the supercalender.
The just described mode of transferring rolls to and from a conventional magazine by means of a crane is time-consuming, cumbersome and dangerous. The weight of sleeves for the end portions of an elastic roll of the type used in supercalenders, and especially the combined weight of two such sleeves and an elastic roll, is considerable so that attachment of sleeves to and detachment of sleeves from the end portions of a roll (this work is performed by hand) must be carried out with utmost care. Once a roll is deposited in the magazine, its end portions are provided with sprocket wheels which receive torque from chains so as to rotate the stored rolls in order to prevent the accumulation of moisture (which is contained in their outer layers) into so-called mositure pockets or bags which would adversely affect the condition of stored rolls. The application of sprocket wheels to the end portions of freshly stored rolls, and detachment of such sprocket wheels from rolls which are about to be transferred from the magazine, also constitutes a time-consuming operation.
It was further proposed to design a magazine for calender rolls in such a way that the rolls can be stored at different levels and that the axes of stored rolls are not disposed in a common vertical plane but are offset in stepwise fashion. Such magazines are equipped with friction wheels which engage properly stored rolls and can be driven to maintain the rolls in rotary motion. Each friction wheel is biased against a metallic part of the adjacent roll by a discrete fluid-operated motor. The means for rotating the friction wheels includes a motor and a belt transmission common to all friction wheels. A drawback of the just described magazines is that they occupy a substantial amount of floor space.